Whole Foods Market (WFM) stock plunges 20% after Natural News reveals 'big lie' on toxic heavy metals

Wednesday, May 07, 2014
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Tags: Whole Foods, share price, market plunge

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(NaturalNews) The stock of Whole Foods Market (WFM) plunged 20% in the opening hours today, the day after Natural News published a bombshell article revealing that some Whole Foods Market employees are lying to customers about the presence of toxic heavy metals in rice protein products sold at Whole Foods stores. Click here to see real-time WFM stock prices on Yahoo Finance.

"Whole Foods shares suffering worst day in 7 years" reported Marketwatch.com. The collapse of WFM shares is widely attributed to disappointing earnings reports and loss of investor confidence, but consumer confidence is also being shattered when stories come out showing Whole Foods is misleading its own customers about toxins in the products it sells.

(And for the record, we did not call for readers to sell WFM stock. We would much rather see Whole Foods share prices rise as it comes clean on this issue and re-establishes trust with the public.)

The story published at Natural News yesterday urged readers to visit Whole Foods stores and ask store managers about the presence of toxic heavy metals in rice protein products, and many replies are now being received by Natural News, confirming how widespread the denial really is. Across the USA, Whole Foods employees and managers appear to be fronting a "big lie" about heavy metals, claiming the products they sell don't contain such contaminants. In fact, they contain these contaminants at such high levels that multiple rice protein products sold at Whole Foods exceed California Prop 65 limits by over 1000%.

Click here to see some of the rice protein results documented at the Natural News Forensic Food Labs.

Scientific research I conducted at the Natural News Forensic Food Labs proves the presence of alarming levels of toxic heavy metals in organic rice protein products sold by Whole Foods. The facts are irrefutable, as any university lab or FDA lab can easily confirm my own findings on this contamination issue.

Natural News contacted Whole Foods to ask for an official response to our story, but so far we have received no response. If a response does come, it will no doubt say something along the lines of, "The products we sell comply with FDA requirements" or similar language. The FDA, by the way, does not limit the level of toxic heavy metals that can be legally sold in foods, herbs or dietary supplements. So anyone selling heavily contaminated products can claim to be "in compliance with FDA" or even USDA regulations.

Whole Foods is losing trust with customers and investors by repeatedly LYING to customers

The value of Whole Foods stock has plummeted nearly 50% since late last year, so today's 20% crash is more than just a fluke -- it's indicative of the rapid erosion of trust in Whole Foods by both investors and customers.

Last year, for example, the Organic Spies caught Whole Foods employees lying on camera about the fact that Whole Foods sells thousands of products containing genetically engineered ingredients (GMOs). Whole Foods employees told Natural News they had been deliberately trained by management to claim the retailer did not sell GMOs -- an outright lie that was publicly exposed.

Following that cover-up, Whole Foods announced they would require mandatory GMO labeling across all the products they sell by the year 2018. Reportedly, Whole Foods is already making progress on that front, and that's good news for all consumers.

What happens when innovation gets replaced by obfuscation?

In many ways, Whole Foods has been a pioneer in health food retailing, and they've demonstrated a high degree of innovation on several fronts, winning the hearts and minds (and paychecks) of millions of customers. But now, with the heavy metals issue looking more and more like another Whole Foods "big lie" cover-up, this is the second time Whole Foods Market has been caught lying about what it sells.

When customers realize they're being lied to about toxic contaminants in products they've purchased at Whole Foods, they begin to lose trust in the Whole Foods brand. They seek alternative retailers like Vitamin Cottage, Natural Grocers, Wild Oats or Sprouts.

As consumer trust is lost in Whole Foods, investor sentiment also declines. After all, the long-term earnings of the company cannot succeed without the trust and goodwill of customers, and trust can be shattered in an instant when a company is caught lying to its own customers.

This is especially true among health-conscious consumers who demand to know what's in the foods they're buying. Whole Foods customers, after all, are the non-GMO, non-pesticide, non-hormones-in-my-food crowd. They sure don't want to be eating toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium and tungsten, either. Yet as I have already scientifically proven, it is irrefutable that Whole Foods is selling toxic heavy metals to its customers right now, while denying it is doing so. These aren't small levels of heavy metals, either: many products sold by Whole Foods right now contain over 1,000% more toxic lead than is allowed under California Prop. 65.

This fact is irrefutable. Sooner or later, Whole Foods is going to have to face the music on this point and decide what to do about it. Natural News has spearheaded this story and investigation, but it's only a matter of time before it goes mainstream.

Urge Whole Foods to tell the truth and refund customers

For a corporation running on trust, a cover-up on toxic contamination is nothing less than a recipe for long-term disaster. That's why I urge Whole Foods to come clean on this issue and tell the truth. Whole Foods should immediately pull all contaminated products from its shelves, issue a recall, refund the money of customers who bought these products, and institute a quality control system to avoid this from happening again.

For the record, I have offered to test products for FREE for the Whole Foods company in order to help them avoid carrying contaminated products in the future. This offer includes up to $100,000 a year in laboratory testing services, offered to Whole Foods Market at no charge. That's how passionately I believe in the Clean Food Movement -- I'm willing to help this corporation clean up their product supply line if they would only have the wisdom and humility to listen to reason.

For now, if you own Whole Foods Market stock (WFM), you may want to consider selling it. There's no telling how far down it's going to go, and I can assure you there's a lot more news coming on this issue from Natural News. (Disclaimer: I do NOT knowingly own any Whole Foods Market stock or options of any kind.) Also keep in mind some investors are now saying WFM is "oversold" and may rebound, an observation which may very well be true...